How Do You Decide Whom to Trust?

"One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life," wrote E. M. Forster. But a new Ohio State University study suggests that the factors determining whom we trust are quite different for men and women.

In an experiment involving 147 college students, most exhibited a fairly high degree of trust in strangers. However, the men were far more likely to trust strangers who were members of an identifiable group to which they themselves belonged, such as a university, club, team, or business. The women were more likely to trust a stranger who had a personal connection to someone close to them, such as the friend of a friend or relative.

These findings suggest that men are not necessarily less social than women, as they are reputed to be, but that they seek symbolic connections-our group versus theirs-while women tend to trust members of their network of relationships. The implications of the study are significant, because the decision to trust, and the way we go about it, are basic to our ability to form and sustain relationships, both business and personal.